When handed $190 million by a studio for a tentpole blockbuster, not many filmmakers would be bold enough – or trust their potential audiences enough, for that matter – to have the second scene of that movie be a psychic conversation between a young man and an unborn fetus. Yet, it’s exactly this confidence and brio that makes Denis Villeneuve such a perfect match for his source material as he completes the story he started in 2021 with Dune Part 2, finishing this epic duology to bring the first of Frank Herbert’s legendary books to life while also setting up a grand trilogy finale in the sure-to-be-greenlit-soon Messiah. A visual wonder that immerses you utterly in this strange, bleak universe, it’s a thunderously entertaining sequel that confirms that, with Dune, Villeneuve is bringing us the 2020s equivalent of the miraculous Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Picking up almost immediately after the end of the first film, Dune 2 finds possible chosen one Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) embedded amongst the native Fremen of Arrakis, viewed with suspicion by most of the tribe but vouched for by devout religious and military leader Stilgar (Javier Bardem having a lot of fun) and young warrior Chani (Zendaya). With him, he brings his ever-more ambitious mother (and carrier of the psychic baby) Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), as he sets his sights on vengeance against the Harkonnen clan who, conspiring in secret with the Emperor (Christopher Walken) laid waste to the Atreides family in the previous film.
It’s a juggernaut of a story, immense forces pushing Paul forward to his destiny as the galaxy’s most powerful man, so what might surprise is how carefully Villeneuve handles the more intimate stuff. Even though the set-pieces here are generally much bigger than anything seen in Part 1, Villeneuve is also unafraid to go smaller, he and returning DOP Greig Fraser filling giant IMAX frames with nothing more than the faces of the cast as they attempt to find human meaning within the unstoppably turning wheels of galactic fate.
It’s in the romance between Paul and Chani that this approach really bears fruit – there are moments that are romcom-sweet as they dance amongst the sands and Chalamet and Zendaya bounce off one another brilliantly. Just like in the first, the cast is an embarrassment of riches – Chalamet captivating and commanding even when having to speak the made up languages of the Fremen, Ferguson tapping into something deeply sinister, and all the other returning characters just having a ball.
Of the newcomers, Walken, Florence Pugh (as the Emperor’s daughter Princess Irulan), and Lea Seydoux (as mysterious schemer Margot Fenring) aren’t given a huge amount to really *do*, mostly there to set up Messiah, but Austin Butler is a hoot as psychotic gladiator Harkonnen Feyd-Rautha (infamously played by Sting in the David Lynch version). Playing the nephew of Part 1’s big bad Baron Harkonnen, Butler has here traded in his soul-deep impersonation of Elvis for an equally complete and convincing impersonation of Stellan Skarsgard – close your eyes when he’s speaking and you legitimately won’t be able to tell where Butler ends and Skarsgard begins.
It’s consistently gripping – and just plain fun – simply spending time with these performances, and even more gripping when they’re chucked into Villeneuve’s grand action sequences, lensed with beauty and spectacle by Fraser. Just like the first, the flawless mix of practical effects, intricate and bizarre design work, and utterly convincing CG gives the set-pieces a sense of scale that only really Lord of the Rings and Mad Max Fury Road (whose influence is felt more keenly here than in in Part 1) can match in terms of 21st Century blockbusters. Sandworm rides, aerial bombing campaigns, clashing armies, and crunching one-on-one knife fights are all rendered in immaculate, thrilling detail – combine the visual work with the rumbling sound and Hans Zimmer’s still-brilliant score and you feel like you’re on Arrakis yourself for the entire 160+ minute runtime.
If Part One was all about establishing the physical realities of Dune’s world, the second half is more concerned with its spiritual underpinnings which – though fascinating – do make Part 2 run a little slower than its predecessor. This lack of haste is put to great use though, making the strengths of the original source material even more evident, this world and its characters perfect mirrors of one another, one constantly informing the other. It also all comes together perfectly in the grand finale, both triumphant and depressing as destiny backs all the characters into a corner, both a melancholy ending on its own terms and a ridiculously exciting set-up for part 3. Last year, with Oppenheimer’s absurd success, Christopher Nolan proved himself a class apart from pretty much any other living director in his ability to give difficult and grandiose stories to a mass audience on the strength of his name alone – if Villeneuve can land this trilogy, he might find himself breathing the same rarefied air.
Jack Blackwell – Film Reviews 